Eurogamer Podcasts Eurogamer

This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss everything shown at the Xbox Showcase last night: one of the best summer preview events in recent years, and one of Microsoft's best ever.
On the one hand, perhaps the trove of upcoming titles should be expected. After all, this is what you should get when you spend nearly $100bn buying up swathes of the games industry. On the other, well, Microsoft has seemed to perenially exist on promising that next year's crop of first-party games will finally be where its acquisition spree pays off, where Game Pass truly hits the big time, and where it at last starts clawing back some market share.
After watching the avalanche of announcements last night (Doom! Gears! Perfect Dark!) alongside everything else we knew was coming (Fable! Indy! More Diablo!) it's hard to see how the next 12 months couldn't make an impact - let alone the boost of launching Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 into Xbox Game Pass. Could Xbox finally feel like it's hitting its stride this console generation, after numerous misfires? Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we look back on the start of this year's June hype cycle, the period formerly known as E3, and now a potpourri of other events and announcement livestreams.
PlayStation got the ball rolling last night with a look ahead at its rather meagre first-party plans for the remainder of 2024: a moderately buffed-up port of Until Dawn, online shooter Concord, and the charming Astro Bot. But, as our Ian wrote earlier, even the cute robot has got some people (VR fans) disgruntled. Still, as a flat-screen game, surely more people will now play it?
And then there was Silent Hill Transmission or, this time around, basically just a longer look at the upcoming Silent Hill 2 and a chance for Konami to promote a load of tie-in tat. Joining me this week are Eurogamer's Victoria Kennedy and Vikki Blake to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the future of Xbox after the announcement Microsoft is shutting a swathe of Bethesda game studios. Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall once seemed primed to benefit from being available via Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's much-touted subscription service often seen as the best reason to own the company's console. Now, the studios behind both are gone forever.
Last year, Microsoft's marketing mouthpiece Aaron Greenberg declared Hi-Fi Rush "a break out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations". Redfall, meanwhile, despite being less-favourably received, had a multiplayer roadmap and a promise of single-player, with hope the Game Pass audience would still prop it up.
But Microsoft's reasoning for closing Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin - to focus on bigger bets - suggests Game Pass is no longer a place where creativity can reign without fear of being too niche, and where fun-if-a-bit-mid multiplayer games can't be supported long enough to receive updates just days from completion.
So where does this leave Xbox, and Game Pass, and studios like DoubleFine or Ninja Theory still making smaller-sized games? How secure does the team behind Hellblade 2 feel today, even if its game launches and is also dubbed a "break out hit"? I'm joined by Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy to discuss.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, following the announcement of a new Batman Arkham game for Meta Quest VR headsets, we talk about the future of superheroes in video games.
At a time when superhero films feel at risk of real burnout, could similar happen in the video game space as well? And are we already seeing that, with repeated flops such as Marvel's Avengers, Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League? Even the brilliant Marvel's Midnight Sons failed to move the needle.
But is there hope on the horizon? With the live-service bubble burst, the next crop of games include single-player blockbusters such as Amy Hennig's Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra plus a new Iron Man project from Star Wars: Squadrons studio EA Motive. And certainly, Sony's Spider-Man games are managing to do the numbers. Joining me to discuss this week are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, after the success of Amazon's Fallout TV series, we discuss the TV and movie adapatations of video games we'd love to see next.
Not every video game series fits an adaptation, and even the ones which do might need some work. You need to adapt the game's story well - such as in HBO's The Last of Us - or find space to tell your own narrative without contradicting the game's own.
So which games do we think might fit the bill? Well, we have a few ideas - and how to go about them. Joining me this week to discuss are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy. And if you're reading this, Jeff Bezos, please do give us credit whenever you're commissioning TV series with our ideas - thank you.
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This week on the Eurogamer Newscast, we discuss the unannounced but widely-expected PlayStation 5 Pro, which looks set to launch later this year.
With the PS5 Pro technical specs now out in the wild, there's been plenty of discussion around what these might mean for PlayStation games running on Sony's cutting-edge hardware. But even with improvements, are we tempted by what is likely to be a £600 upgrade? And how has it been four years since the regular PS5 launched already?
And yet - we are now sitting at the likely mid-point of this console generation. For some, this is the best point to be thinking about console hardware, four years after the generation began and likely around four years from the "proper" next consoles arriving. And there will be those of course still yet to upgrade from PS4 at all. Is the Pro likely to be a tempting next step? Joining me this week to discuss are Eurogamer's Ed Nightingale and Victoria Kennedy.
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